C++ Standard Template Library
Lesson 1 of 23 in Coddy's C++ - Standard Template Library course.
The C++ Standard Template Library (STL) is a software library representing a set of C++ template classes that provide generic classes and functions that implement common data structures and algorithms.
The STL is invented and developed by Alexander Stepanov in 1994. The library provides many containers, algorithms, functions and classes that are very useful, especially in competitive programming. For example, we have sorting algorithms to sort lists of data, also we have dynamically sized arrays where we don't have to specify the number of elements that we are going to store and many more.
STL is a generic library, generic programming is an approach that focuses on implementing and using data structures and algorithms in a way such that there will be no loss in efficiency. That's how we maximize speed, performance and lower the complexity.
We can divide the STL into four parts or components:
- Containers
- Algorithms
- Functions
- Iterators
Try it yourself
This lesson doesn't include a code challenge.